February 2008 Archives
“The Life You Save May Be Your Own” by Flannery O’Connor
“ ‘She looks like an angel of Gawd,’ he murmured” (66).
“ ‘My mother was an angel of Gawd,’ Mr. Shiftlet said in a very strained voice” (67).
Initially, one might think that in O’Connor’s warped mind, she created a story in which a man marries his mother. Even though these two lines parallel in describing Lucynell and Mr. Shiftlet’s mother, this is not the case. If you look at the circumstances surrounding the two situations you see how O’Connor is trying to convey a message.
The first quote is spoken by the waiter boy at the diner. The boy is absolutely fascinated by Lucynell’s beauty and is able to see the good in everyone (even if the person he is infatuated with bears a name resembling that of Lucifer). The second quote was spoken by Shiftlet to a hitchhiker who obviously cannot see the good in anything, not even his own mother. The two boys are each other's foils. Shiftlet, it says, is shocked by the reaction of the hitchhiker most likely because he realizes how much like him he is. As he said, “[God] took her from heaven and giver to me and I left her” (67). He obviously feels regret for his actions; constantly up and leaving every good thing in his life. Realizing his sin, he asks for God to baptize him with the rain (washing the slime from this earth). While he thought he was saving Lucynell’s mother’s life by taking he burden of her child off of her, he actually saved his own spiritual life because Lucynell made him realize his sinful, self-centered ways.
“Bevel didn’t see him at all. He only saw the river, shimmering reddish yellow, and bounded into it with his shoes and his coat on and took a gulp” (O’Connor 51).
Some people, especially Catholics, believe that in death, we are born again. Another way in which Catholics are born again is through baptism, when original sin is washed away and we are newly born into God’s kingdom. In this story, baptism and death are one in the same as we see Bevel, who was baptizing himself, being “overcome with surprise” as the current takes him away and drowns him (52). The message of the story, make ready for death and the Kingdom of God because you never know when the current will take you, is reflected in this line. When Mrs. Connin says to Bevel, “ ‘Some people don’t care how they send one off.’” she foreshadows his death and reinforces this idea (32).
Despite his constant effort Bevel plunges under the water but cannot see Mr. Paradise (who obviously represents the Kingdom of God) because he only sees the worldly surface value of the river. Interestingly, Mr. Paradise is chasing after him with a candy cane. The candy cane was invented as a special gift meant to represent Jesus. The red stripe represents his blood and the white represents his purity from sin. It is also shaped like a “J.”
The boy being baptized in the river can and most likely represents Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist, and his journey to the river represents Jesus’ way to Calvary where he was eventually hung on the cross.
Harry Ashfield- “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
For more information on O’Connor, check out Jesus the Misfit. In this blog I discuss The Misfit’s line, “She would have been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life,” from Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find. Here I also bring up her Catholic background and explain how she uses it to tell her stories.
This portfolio compiles all the blogs I have posted as of February 25, 2008 for Dr. Jerz’s Introduction to Literary Study class at Seton Hill University.
For every class, we are assigned texts to read and blog about using the RRRR sequence. First we Read the given text, React by posting an agenda item on our blogs, and Respond to our peers by commenting on their blogs. The final R stands for Reflect. For each agenda item we post, we are to right a brief, informal reflection paper. This process helps us to critically think about the text and engage in conversation. We do the RRRR sequence before class even begins, so we have a thought to bring to the table when discussions arise. Also, there is never enough time in any class to cover text in great detail. Blogging helps everyone see what everyone is thinking about the text, and it gives us an outlet to continue discussion outside the classroom.
This portfolio is the first in a set of three which, as I have said, compiles all my blogs thus far for the Spring 2008 semester into an index format. They were all posted before class started, discuss specific quotes from the assigned readings, and including links to the course homepage and, in some cases, portions of the readings listed found online.
-Interaction-
The following blog entries show an ongoing discussion between a peer and I on our blogs.
Hello Ugly! You’re Looking Beautiful Today Shakespeare definitely was not all about mushy love when he wrote “My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun.” See the conversation Angela Palumbo and I had concerning Shakespeare’s lovely sonnet.
Jesus the Misfit If you’ve ever wondered what The Misfit meant by, “She would have been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life,” in Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find, then look no further. The answer lies on the other side of this link. In this blog’s comments, Jessie Farine and I discuss what each other wrote.
-Depth-
The above blog entries and the following demonstrate my ability to dig deep into the text. In some of the entries, like “I’m Looking Through You. Where Did You Go?” and Hello Ugly! You’re Looking Beautiful Today, I found two distinctly different interpretations for the text and discussed each. In The Women of Prufrock’s Life I wrote a close reading on a close reading.
We Find the Defendant… This blog entry focuses on the last line of Susan Glaspell’s short play “Trifles” in which two women conspire to protect their friend from being found guilty of killing her husband.
Caps Lock Emily Dickinson’s poem “Victory Comes Late” uses capitalized words throughout to draw a deeper meaning from the poem.
The Chariot This blog takes Emily Dickinson’s “The Chariot” step by step and explains each stanza as Dickinson might have wanted it read.
Die, Death Die! John Donne’s “Death, Be Not Proud” gets a close analysis when I go searching for a deeper meaning.
“I’m Looking Through You. Where Did You Go?” This blog examines a quote from Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” Acts II and III. The line comes from Act II Scene 2 Lines 47-52.
The Women of Prufrock’s Life A close reading on a close reading by Blythe and Sweet.
-Discussion-
The following blogs are not my own, but rather blogs written by my peers that I have written extensive comments on.
Nobody Can Talk Smack on Death Like John Donne This is Angela Palumbo’s blog on John Donne’s “Death, Be Not Proud”
Hair Like Wire? Sounds... Pretty. Kaitlin Monier wrote a blog concerning Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’ Eyes” sonnet to which I responded. I also commented on her Sympathy For Death? It Didn’t Last Long.
-More Blog Entries-
The above blog entries displayed a more interactive and deeper understanding for the assigned texts in our class. However, I wrote many other interesting blogs. This is an archive of the remaining blog entries I have written and posted as of February 25, 2008.
The Trouble With Only Literature
Rather than writing a separate agenda item and reflection that would basically discuss the same things, I decided to create one document for this close reading/agenda item assignment.
Agenda Item and Close Reading
Blythe and Sweet on “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot
While my interpretation that T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” discusses prostitution may sound like an extreme interpretation, it still echoes Blythe and Sweet’s suggestion that Eliot referenced John Donne’s “Song,” borrowing his theme that women are not trustworthy. Blythe and Sweet claim that, “…the parallel between Donne’s and Eliot’s lines is much more extensive and that an investigation of this relationship better informs a close reading of ‘Prufrock’.” While their thesis may be broad, they begin to break-up their argument into pieces and discuss different themes, techniques, and word choices the two poems share.
I originally wrote how Eliot’s poem discusses prostitution. Prostitution stereotypically involves a woman, a man, and deception. The man deceives himself into thinking he can find love with a prostitute, and the prostitute deceives the man by allowing him to believe this. With this bleak outlook on relationships, especially that with women (since Eliot is a man he would take Prufrock’s viewpoint that the prostitute is the deceiver). As Blythe and Sweet note, “Out walking one October night, the more afraid self would rather, like the patient and cat, go to sleep than visit another party where he will confront women, and so he procrastinates, rationalizes…” For what reason would a man fear to be around women? Possibly he is afraid of commitment. Possibly he is afraid of women playing with his heartstrings.
Either way, women are a burden to Prufrock. Blythe and Sweet compare Eliot’s poem and theme to that of Donne’s in the same paragraph: “In the end, just as with Donne’s internal debate, the doubting self convinces the other of the hopelessness of connecting with a woman, so he leaves the party to walk alone on the beach…” They support this and many other ideas by including quotes from both works and comparing them. At no time do they say, “I believe this because.” Instead, they take a viewpoint and discuss it as though it is the only correct viewpoint. This makes for an effective argument that has an almost subliminal message. But, as we have learned from our class discussions, there is never one interpretation for anything. In class we discussed how Eliot’s poem was a dream. In Blythe and Sweets close reading, they suggest the poem outlines a series of events dealing with women. Either way, to make their close reading effective, they stood by their opinion.
*This is a close reading on the article written by Blythe and Sweet, not on Eliot’s poem. he following is the Work Cited for Blythe and Sweet’s Article:
Blythe, Hal, and Charlie Sweet.. “Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’.” Explicator 62.2 (Winter 2004): 108-110. MLA International Bibliography. Ebsco. Seton Hill, Greensburg, PA. 21 February 2008. <http://reeveslib.setonhill.edu:2048/login?url=http://reeveslib.setonhill.edu:2052/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2004580105&loginpage=login.asp&site=ehost-live>.
“The Merry Wives of Windsor” by William Shakespeare
Acts II and III
Quickly: Your worship says very true. I pray your worship, come a little nearer this ways.
Falstaff: I warrant thee, nobody hears. Mine own people, mine own people.
Quickly: Are they so? God bless them and make them his servants!
(Act II Scene 2 Lines 47-52)
Previous to this discussion, Falstaff had just finished insulting Pistol, saying nearly that he wished to have no relation to him. Pistol, a self-centered thief, refuses to carry a letter for Falstaff, even after Falstaff lied, straight faced, to Pistol’s victims on several occasions. When Mistress Quickly enters, however, Falstaff refuses to give away his own deceptive nature to Pistol and Robin (another of his “men”) by ignoring her request that they either leave or he move closer so they cannot hear what she has to say.
“You can always trust a dishonest person to be dishonest,” Johnny Depp said in “Pirates of the Caribbean.” One could also further this by saying simply that in a pack of thieves and liars, the only friend you have is yourself. Falstaff, in these lines, shows the very same egocentric nature the Pistol possesses. He wants to look like the tough guy to his followers, so he refuses to let them know his weaknesses and his own dishonest nature.
Mistress Quickly does finish these line with quite an ironic blessing that can be seen in two ways:
1.) Pistol and Robin are already technically Falstaff’s servants. The irony is he no longer wants to be associated with them anymore (just as he stated indirectly right before Mistress Quickly entered). This line could be read that Mistress Quickly extends a blessing on God’s behalf to Pistol and Robin and in the same sentence turns to Falstaff and wishes that they remain Falstaff’s faithful servants. Ironically, however, they are not faithful.
2.) Mistress Quickly extends a blessing on God’s behalf wishing that Pistol and Robin remain faithful servant to God. The irony in here lies with the fact that they are liars and thieves.
*In cases you were wondering, the title of this entry comes from the Beatles song "I'm Looking Through You" which deals with deception and a character who changes into someone she is not. Maybe its only in my own world that the song title fits this entry.
“The Merry Wives of Windsor” by William Shakespeare
Act I
“SLENDER: Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, I shall do that that is reason” (Act I Scene 1).
This line screams, “You can buy me with money!” Up until this line, and probably in the Acts to follow, Slender has made it well known that he is after money. He makes passes at Anne Page, who he has found out inherited a large sum of money from her deceased grandfather. In those days, a woman married with a dowry. The higher the dowry, the more likely men were to want to marry her. It is all about money for many men at the time, and Slender is no exception.
“My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun” by William Shakespeare
Original Assignment: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/sonnet-shakespeare.php
“And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare.” (Lines 13-14).
In my own relationship, I don’t accept empty compliments. When my boyfriend tells me I’m beautiful when I’ve just crawled out of bed with my hair in knots, wearing an old paint stained t-shirt and sweatpants, with breath that could take out Hiroshima (“And in some perfumes is there more delight/ Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.”), I’m not going to jump into his arms proclaiming how sweet he is. Instead, I’ll give him a look that asks, “What drugs are you on?” and thank him (with all sarcasm intended). That doesn’t mean I’m not sentimental. It just means I know when I look like crap and when I don’t, but thanks for the compliment anyways.
I saw two explanations for Shakespeare’s rude compliments (if ever an oxymoron existed).
1.) Shakespeare takes my point of view (or conversely I take Shakespeare’s). Instead of lying to his mistress, he tells her exactly what he thinks. He tells her that her hair is in knots, paint stained t-shirts and sweat pants make her look like a bum, and that he needs a gas mask before getting anywhere near her mouth. He’s being honest. But, even though he say these things, he still loves her. The quote I picked demonstrates that by saying his love is rare. If we were to compare this to today’s society, it is rare to find a man who can honestly say he would rather date a hillbilly like woman than a hot supermodel.
2.) Perhaps his “mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” because they are more beautiful than the sun. Perhaps they “are nothing like the sun” because he can look into her eyes and see wonder and beauty, but he cannot look at the sun without burning his own eyes. Coral may be more red than her lips, but what is wrong with that? Lips are not naturally red. Women apply makeup to cover up natural beauty. If her lips are not red (and her cheeks are not rosy from blush), then his mistress is satisfied with her natural beauty. She is also unlike other women in that her hair is black. But still, even though her voice may seem irritating to some, he still loves it. His love, as the quote I chose states, is rare for the same reasons I wrote in explanation one. Men today, and most likely back in Shakespeare’s day, would rather have a woman who makes herself up than a woman who is satisfied with her natural beauty.
Either way you take this poem, Shakespeare’s love for his mistress (or the narrator’s love for his mistress) is obvious. One could relate beauty to a rose, but this would be “belied with false compare.” As the old saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and sometimes nothing can compare.
“Holy Sonnets: Death, Be Not Proud” by John Donne
Original Assignment: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/sonnet-donne.php
“Death, thou shalt die” (line 14, Donne).
While this quote may sound like the narrator is saying “Die you stupid Death!” as though death were a living being that could die, this line actually reflects Emily Dickinson’s “The Chariot” in that both poems see death as a means of the “soul’s delivery” (line 8, Donne).
To many people of this world, death is “mighty and dreadful,” but to Donne, it is not (line 2). He actually states in lines six and seven that death must certainly bring about more pleasure than ever existed in life. He comes to this conclusion, at least in the poem, by drawing on the many images and metaphors of death such as “rest and sleep,” in which he sees “much pleasure.”
6 From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
7 Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
Since Donne sees death as pleasurable rather than dreadful, one must look at “Death, thou shalt die!” with a different perspective. The poem tells death not to be proud in the very first line, and the reasons for this follow. The narrator insults death by telling him that he is pleasurable rather than scary, can be mimicked with drugs such as opium (poppies), and is a “slave to fate.” If one were to adapt and follow Donne’s perception of death, death in its current worldly view (scary and dreadful) would die. We would see death as a beginning rather than an end.
Original Asignments Homepage: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/dickinson_1.php
“The Chariot” by Emily Dickinson
When it comes to poems, I can never pick just one stanza to quote because I see how each fits together. I cannot talk about just one without referencing the other, and I always see bits and pieces of interesting things in each that I want to mention. So, for your reading pleasure, I have commented on what I feel needs commenting. Enjoy!
BECAUSE I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
It’s interesting to note that Dickinson and the narrator see death as an immortal state. In essence that is true. Immortality means you can never die, that you live forever. Once you are dead, you cannot die again. In the state of death (in the afterlife if you so choose to believe that) you can paradoxically live forever.
This stanza also notes on how kind death was to the narrator. He (or she…but since this work lacks a definite pronoun as far as gender goes….I will use he) …he, the narrator, was so wrapped up in his assumingly fulfilling life that he had no time to wait around for death. It just happened to him one day. Death was kind in that the narrator did not feel the effects of death as some who suffer for years before they finally die.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste, 5
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
Neither Death or the narrator was in a hurry.
The narrator realizes that when you die, you no longer have to labor. The commas surrounding “and my leisure too” suggest the narrator added this as an afterthought, realizing that even though there is no labor to do after death, you also do not have the satisfaction of leisure. If one has neither work nor leisure to look forward to, then what does one do when they are dead?
We passed the school where children played
At wrestling in a ring; 10
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
This stanza is representative of life. It starts when you are a child, learning and playing. Then life moves to a time when one must work to live (in a field perhaps). Finally, one goes to sleep. This could suggest sleep at the end of a hard day, retirement, or death.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible, 15
The cornice but a mound.
This is a freshly dug grave. No surprises there.
Since then ‘t is centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity. 20
Of course nearly everyone has seen a movie where a character has a near death experience and exclaims, “I saw my life flash before my eyes!” This stanza of Dickinson’s poem reflects that. The day the narrator realized he was going to die seemed to last for centuries.
P.S. to Dr. Jerz: Now didn't I say in Workbook 1-2 that a chariot was symbolic of death?
Original assignment: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/explicator.php
“ ‘Victory Comes Late’ expresses Dickinson’s quiet bitterness toward a God who promises so much to his people, and yet distributes merely crumbs allowing them just a glimpse of real joy.” (page 32 from Katherine Monteiro on Dickinson’s “Victory Comes Late”)
Dickinson had a hard time believing in a higher being for the same reasons that atheists of today do. Many atheists I have talked to explain that religion was created by humans and that if a God did exist, we wouldn’t have to search for bits and pieces of clues that God left behind for us. He would, instead, make himself very known. While I personally cannot argue with that logic, I can see the rebuttal. If God made himself known to us, there would only be one religion. This would cause turmoil. For Dickinson, though, she feels God is somewhat selfish for only giving people “just a glimpse of real joy.”
Rather than pick a quote from the poem, I decided to point out a technique Dickinson used in her poem, "Victory Comes Late" that might go unnoticed by some. This observation cannot be made using the version of the poem listed at http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/dickinson.php. Instead, I used the poem at the beginning of Katherine Monteiro’s piece.
Several times in the body of the poem, she capitalizes words. When I noticed this, I thought of “National Treasure” where certain words were capitalized and spelled out a secret message. The words she capitalized (besides the beginning of each line, are as follows and in this order:
God
Table
Us
We
Eagle’s
Golden
Breakfast
Them
His
Oath
Sparrows
Love
While the words do not spell out some secret code, they act as a sort of code in themselves. Many times authors capitalize certain words to draw your attention to them, to give them a special meaning (like when you use air quotes or italicize a word). What I did see was
Two words refer to God (God, His)
Two words refer to a type of bird (Eagle’s, Sparrows)
Two words refer to an eternal promise (Oath, Love)
Two words refer to eating (Table, Breakfast)
and Three words are pronouns referring to a body of people (Us, We, Them)
The odd word out is Golden
These words echo happiness and fulfillment, even though the poem is sour and the title, “Victory Comes Late,” holds a negative connotation. These words, when lumped together and searched for meaning, suggest an eternal (Golden) promise of God’s. Birds symbolize hope, purity, and a promise. In the Bible, the literary home of God, birds were used to show that God was with his people. Also in the Bible, a meal, the last supper, was shared. The words referring to eating somewhat suggest this meal where a promise was made to God’s people that he would always be with him in body and blood (bread and wine).
Original Assignment: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/foster_ch_12_interlude_p_183.php
“At the far end of the spectrum, we might be reminded of Plato, who in the “Parable of the Cave” section of The Republic (fifth century B.C.) gives us an image of the cave as consciousness and perception” (Foster 100).
This comparison between a cave and a human mind basically theorizes that the mind is empty until something is put in it to fill it up, but this does not fit Plato’s theory at all. Plato believed everything we will ever need to know is already in our mind, and if we want to access it we just have to think about it. So perhaps one could say we already know everything about a piece of literature, based on based experiences, but we have to realize we know it so that we can.
Original Assignment: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/eliot_the_love_song_of_j_alfre.php
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
(T.S. Eliot 15-22)
Quite honestly, I’m not sure what to make of this poem. This stanza reminds me of a chapter from Foster where he says it’s always about sex. Since the title says this is a love song, I think it would be far more interesting to write about a scandalous love affair than the regular kind of love. With that said, I think this stanza refers to prostitution. With racy words such as “licked it tongue,” “lingered,” and “slipped” I’m starting to wonder if I just have a perverted mind or if that was Eliot’s true intent.
The yellow fog and smoke represent the guilt the main character has about investing in a tabooed relationship instead of finding a true one.
Original Assignment: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/foster_69_1114.php
“What we mean in speaking of ‘myth’ in general is story, the ability of story to explain ourselves to ourselves in ways that physics, philosophy, mathematics, chemistry- all very highly useful and informative in their own right-can’t. That explanation takes the shape of stories that are deeply ingrained in our group memory, that shape our culture and are in turn shaped by it, that constitute a way of seeing by which we read the world and, ultimately, ourselves” (Foster 65).
I picked a long one and for good reason. So many people take what they’ve read (be it the Bible, a magazine article, a biography, a novel…whatever) and find a meaning behind it. When they meet someone who has an oppositional viewpoint, they automatically assume the other person is wrong. If they were to agree with that person, they feel like they are losing a piece of themselves, that personal attachment that made their viewpoint so correct for so long.
Original assignment canbe found at http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/oconnor_a_good_man_is_hard_to.php
“ ‘She would have been a good woman,’ The Misfit said, ‘if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.’” (page 29).
This particular quote comes from the last few sentences of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” after The Misfit kills the grandmother.
O’Connor writes the character of the grandmother in such a way that the reader is supposed to assume she is a senile and hypocritical old woman by picking up on clues when the grandmother makes many racist, bigoted, and un-Christian comments. However, when her and her family find themselves at the mercy of The Misfit, she begins talking away about how Jesus can save him if only he’d pray. When she says, “You’re one of my own children!” (page 29) and reaches out to touch him, he kills her.
The grandmother, as O’Connor wants you to believe, is not a good woman in the sense that she is a very un-Christian person. (A biography of O’Connor will tell you that she is very strong with her religious messages). When she realizes that she is at the moment of death, she begins to ask for forgiveness and mercy from The Misfit (who resembles a Christ-figure). O’Connor wants people to associate this with the Catholic belief that forgiveness can come at the moment of death. She obviously has a very negative attitude about “Christians” who claim to do good deeds, but in fact do not and still have the opportunity for forgiveness. The Misfits comment basically means that had the grandmother been knowingly at the brink of death all her life, she would have been a more Christian woman, seeking mercy and forgiveness all her life.
Just as an extra tid-bit:
The Misfit killed the grandmother after she called him one of her own. Because The Misfit is a Christ-figure in this story, this resembles people who are at the moment of death and call out to Jesus and say “I believe in you.” (This is basically a deeply held Catholic belief- and O’Connor was very much a Catholic writer). When she recognizes The Misfit as “Jesus,” he finally takes her life, just as it is believed God would.
Original Assignment: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/hamilton_131.php
On Hamilton's "Essential Literary Terms" pages 1-31
“Bernice Bobs Her Hair” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an example of an indirect satire as opposed to a direct satire. Rather than coming out and just saying that it is better to feel good about yourself than trying to conform to something so unlike yourself, he implies it by showing the downfall of the main character Bernice. It is hoped that in the end she discovers her fault along with the audience.
Original Assignment: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/hamilton_131.php
A Random Quote from Hamilton (pages 1-31):
“A prominent example in twentieth-century drama is the theater of the absurd, which questions the meaning of life in a universe seen as godless and which has overthrown such accepted conventions as well-established setting, logical dialogue, and a fully resolved conflict.” (Hamilton 6)
If my life were a work of fiction, it would be one of these “theater of the absurd” dramas. This past year and a half has been an increasing struggle for me as I try to define my religious beliefs and convince my mother to accept them. In reference to the quote, I do not necessarily believe the universe is godless as much as I believe the universe is God and vice versa. Theater of the absurd overthrows technical conventions, and I have also begun to overthrow, at least in my personal life, the conventions of society.
I was drawn to this quote because of a later statement which contained the phrase “solipsistic protagonist.” Solipsistic, according to dictionary.com, is the philosophy that only the self exists or can be proven to exist. Instead of finding this incredibly egocentric, I find it fascinating. One can only prove that they exist because they can think that they exist…and I thank Descartes for that logic.
Taken from: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative/shortstory/
Original Assignment: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/short_story_tips.php
“Conflict is the fundamental element of fiction, fundamental because in literature only trouble is interesting. It takes trouble to turn the great themes of life into a story: birth, love, sex, work, and death.” -Janet Burroway (Short Story Tips)
Now I ask you which is true?
1. Trouble is the only thing interesting in literature.
2. Only in literature is trouble interesting.
The way in which Burroway worded her statement leaves the reader with ambiguous thoughts. Which of the above statements did she mean? Does it matter? To me it does not because I disagree with both versions. First of all, trouble is not the only interesting thing in literature. I for one, enjoy allegories which are sometimes full of happy-joy-joy, but they are still interesting. The second version is also untrue. Many historical novels and biographies discuss trouble the main character (or person) encountered. This makes the story interesting.